Shapes of Clay by Ambrose Bierce

Author:Ambrose Bierce [Bierce, Ambrose]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Published: 2004-06-01T04:00:00+00:00

The insulted nation, so the story goes,

Rose as one man—the very dead arose,

Springing indignant from the riven tomb,

And babes unborn leapt swearing from the womb!

All to the Council Chamber clamoring went,

By rage distracted and on vengeance bent.

In that vast hall, in due disorder laid,

The tools of legislation were displayed,

And the wild populace, its wrath to sate,

Seized them and heaved them at the Jester's pate.

Mountains of writing paper; pools and seas

Of ink, awaiting, to become decrees,

Royal approval—and the same in stacks

Lay ready for attachment, backed with wax;

Pens to make laws, erasers to amend them;

With mucilage convenient to extend them;

Scissors for limiting their application,

And acids to repeal all legislation—

These, flung as missiles till the air was dense,

Were most offensive weapons of offense,

And by their aid the Fool was nigh destroyed.

They ne'er had been so harmlessly employed.

Whelmed underneath a load of legal cap,

His mouth egurgitating ink on tap,

His eyelids mucilaginously sealed,

His fertile head by scissors made to yield

Abundant harvestage of ears, his pelt,

In every wrinkle and on every welt,

Quickset with pencil-points from feet to gills

And thickly studded with a pride of quills,

The royal Jester in the dreadful strife

Was made (in short) an editor for life!

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